Sara Rosenbaum

Sara Rosenbaum J.D. is the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University.

Recent Articles

AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia, has encouraged states to seek waivers that would undermine Medicaid's role as a safety net. This article appears in the Fall 2017 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here . From its modest beginning in 1965, when it was passed as a little-noticed companion to Medicare, Medicaid has evolved into an indispensable public health program with broad bipartisan support. Today, as the centerpiece of the health-care safety net, the program serves nearly 75 million people, all either poor or medically impoverished. Medicaid pays for half of all births, enrolls 40 percent of all U.S. children, covers two-thirds of all nursing home residents, and insures one in three Americans with disabilities. This year’s Republican bills to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act sought to impose severe long-term cuts in federal Medicaid funding; those...